The present disclosure relates generally to the field of semiconductor packaging. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) package with coated bonding wires and a method for making the same.
In the integrated circuit (IC) packaging industry, there is a continuous desire to provide higher and higher density IC packages for semiconductor die having increasing numbers of input/output (I/O) terminal pads. When using a conventional wire bonding packaging technique, the pitch, or spacing between adjacent bonding wires becomes finer and finer as the number of I/O terminal pads increases for a given size die.
During the molding or encapsulation of a plastic IC package, the flow of a plastic molding compound melt into a mold cavity exerts forces sufficiently high as to displace or deform the bonding wires, hence resulting in bonding wire sweep or mold wire sweep. The wire deformation causes adjacent bond wires to come into contact with each other, which results in shorting between adjacent wires.
Although a variety of approaches have been suggested for reducing the bonding wire sweep during the encapsulating process of an IC package, many of these approaches require additional process steps or require specialized equipment. These requirements for additional process steps or specialized equipment add to the costs of producing the package and are therefore undesirable.